Currently, in various situations, a processor or operating system accessing memory does not know the access time, e.g., the time it takes to acquire the data from the memory system. Processor time and other resources can be wasted due to this memory access time because during this time the processor is idled waiting for the access data. Further, the access time can be very long such as in case of a memory page miss in which a slow device like a hard disc is accessed. In some approaches, a process seeking the access data keeps waiting for the data until the allocated wait time runs out, at that time the process is put in the background.
Based on the foregoing, it is clearly desirable that mechanisms be provided to solve the above deficiencies and related problems.